The SAM agenda

We’ve talked a lot about Kevin Sabet, Patrick Kennedy and their “SAM” organization and how they have positioned themselves as the anti-marijuana-legalization force. Knowing that few would really support them if their policy suggestions were transparent, they’ve cloaked their pitch in an impossible vagueness (no more incarceration, yet opposing legalization, and worrying about something called ‘Big Marijuana.’) Treatment was involved, but it was unclear how mandatory.

As Kennedy and Sabet cut a path between the poles of legalization and prohibition, they seem to list toward the status quo. They would make the simple possession of marijuana a civil infraction, like jaywalking, which could take 750,000 annual marijuana arrests down to zero, and alleviate the disproportionate burden that prohibition puts on people who are nonwhite and poor.

But instead of handcuffs, Kennedy and Sabet propose a mandatory screening for marijuana addiction, according to the “Legal Reform” section of their website. That could lead to “marijuana education,” and ultimately a year in a “probation program to prevent further drug use.” And if the pot smoker still insists on getting high? It’s handcuffs time.

Notice how quickly that went from no arrests to mandatory treatment to… arrests? Status quo is correct.

On medical marijuana:

He’d like to repeal every law that treats smoked marijuana as medicine.

On black markets:

…they’re particularly unapologetic about championing the continued existence of a black market. They say it’s mostly nonviolent on the American side, and will create fewer public health problems than allowing advertisers to flog for Big Marijuana.

Wow.

On the science behind their approach:

“Life isn’t really in our control,” says Kennedy, as another sober day fades to night. “There’s a mover in the universe, a higher power, so to speak, and we can’t imagine what we’re going to find in our universe if we let go and just let God lead us.”

80 comments to The SAM agenda

I’m very much looking forward to the launch of their Marijuana Majority competitor site, for which I’ve suggested the URL http://ProhibitionMinority.com. I can’t wait to read all 12 quotes from people who have no realistic ambition for future elected office.

If this is the sober Patrick Kennedy, then let’s bring back Patrick Kennedy the drunken slob.

There’s nothing like being a professional victim. Misery loves company. Kennedy wants all pot consumers to be narcissistic Shakespearean tragedies and wallow in their own hopeless muck, just as Patrick does. ‘If it weren’t for drugs…blah, blah.’ Money, fame from birth, a guaranteed political career, and he’s still a flop. Cura te ipsum (physician, heal thyself).

Kennedy has given himself to a higher power and admitted that he himself is hopeless. Well, on the other hand I find his joke to Steven Colbert about “Invest in rehab” to be telling. Someone doesn’t feel hopeless.

The drug war’s profit motive
By Radley Balko: http://tinyurl.com/mhfhhlv
There are many groups in our current prohibitionist society that only thrive on drug war funds.

I saw him on Colbert. Narcissism kills, unfortunately with a huge blast zone for whatever decent people he might have in his life. But he’s probably given himself entirely to The Corporation. If he fails They’ll toss him to the wolves.

Who would be better suited to profit than the Director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida? There has always been big money in lying about marijuana (think of the children). How indebted is Kennedy for his salvation back from the brink helpless, hopeless oblivion? I don’t mean to be cruel, but this is a serious issue with some seriously flawed logic coming from SAM. Where is their detached logic? There is no logic coming from them that is not seriously flawed. Drug war logic does not make sense. Its based in seriously flawed thinking.

I wrote to the 18 members of the legislature for whom I have email addys and told them that if they did (or do, for the senators) vote to pass this legislation to expect recall petitions in their districts for ignoring the wishes of the voters in their constituencies, that they had (or will, in the case of senators) put their planned political careers in jeopardy.

I wrote to the 18 members of the legislature for whom I have email addys and told them that if they did (or do, for the senators) vote to pass this legislation to expect recall petitions in their districts for ignoring the wishes of the voters in their constituencies, that they had (or will, in the case of senators) put their planned political careers in jeopardy.

☛”Congress should make marijuana legal, then,” is the response from some bankster circles…
☛Marijuana trafficking is illegal under Federal law…
☛The Administration can’t change the law with a memo…
☛Banks can now go for dope trade money…
☛Where they have legalized marijuana use for “medical” highs…

☛Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee has issued a statement denouncing the Obama Administration’s action:

Kevin reminds me of all the poor souls on the social outs at high school and college. Most knew they were on the outs because of their unpopular behavior, like trying to tell others how to live. Doesn’t tend to endear you to most people. But they wouldn’t change their ways. The sort of people that Billy Joel sang about:

There’s a place in the world for the angry young man
With his working class ties and his radical plans
He refuses to bend he refuses to crawl
And he’s always at home with his back to the wall
And he’s proud of his scars and the battles he’s lost
And struggles and bleeds as he hangs on his cross
And likes to be known as the angry young man

They would usually wind up in the company of only their own, embittered at their self-imposed ostracism, blaming the ‘moral failures’ of others from blinding them and not seeing what inherently superior beings the prohibs were…and that their word was Gospel.

The prohibs are always nailing themselves to their faux moral crosses, expecting we’ll salute them as we pass.

I’m not even halfway kidding when I say that if they’re bound and determined to challenge us to a winner take all game of wits I can’t think of a better man than Mr. Kennedy to plan their strategy! I also think that it’s just peachy that “Dr” Sabet is the one who has his hand up Mr. Kennedy’s ass working his mouth!

Can we make cuttings so if something goes wrong with Mr. Kennedy we’ll have some backup units so we won’t have to lose his leadership? I’m not sure if it would be wise to get greedy. We could release a bunch of clones at once to hurry along the repeal of “marijuana” laws but it might backfire and we’d end up with legal oxycodone distributed in gumball machines at Chuck E Cheezus. Better safe than sorry!

I think that Prof. Kleiman may have decided to compete for brain dead prohibitionist of the year after all. Lately I’ve been tossing around the idea that in his own mind that he’s a double agent. I’m not sure about that. With so many unintentional blank spaces in the prohibitionist brain it’s really not a simple task to deduce their “thought” process.Mark Kleiman Admits That Rescheduling Marijuana Would Have An Impact After All

Being blessed with the opportunity to watch these assholes getting marginalized into irrelevance is now my very second favorite recreational activity!

Since Jacob Sullum and his friends get their feelings terribly hurt when I point out that he’s talking through his hat, and since I purely hate hurting people’s feelings, I won’t mention him here.

The pompous ass mentions a person by name, insults him, and then says he “won’t mention him here” because he “purely” hates “hurting people’s feelings”. What a brilliantly vivid illustration of sheer two-faced fulla-crap self-contradictory cognitive dissonance! At this point he doesn’t even seem to know or care that he’s coming off like a petulant grade-school child with a behavioral disorder.

So yeah, I gotta agree that it’s highly entertaining to watch these assholes getting marginalized into irrelevance.

“I also think that it’s just peachy that “Dr” Sabet is the one who has his hand up Mr. Kennedy’s ass working his mouth!”

Wait, wait, wait – Pat says it’s Nora’s hand (and her ‘science’…) ‘science’ that he couldn’t remember well enough to debate/argue the nonsense Kiwi-Aussie (IIRC) ‘studies’ – on the whole “it lowered the IQ’s of people some people studied (in large part via self-reporting.)

(Again – IIRC), they basically took reported use/rates at the specific ages of 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 40? and they juggled the numbers in some fashion as to come up with the “09% dependency” figure, then subbed in “addiction” for “dependency”…

“Dependence
Information on the addictive potential of marijuana is provided in greater detail on two separate web pages. In summary, marijuana has been shown to be addicting to 9% of people who begin smoking at 18 years or older. Withdrawal symptoms — irritability, anxiety, sleep disturbances — often contribute to relapse. Because adolescent brains are still developing, marijuana use before 18 results in higher rates of addiction — up to 17% within 2 years — and disruption to an individual’s life. The younger the use, the greater the risk.”

And – Ive seen the study taken apart maybe around here IDK But I do know that it wasn’t based on what I’d call reliable – “Science” at all, It was more like moderately-biased gibberish, produced by – statistical water-boarding – and as usual numbers will confess to anything if you torture them long enough.

And their adverse affects of Dependence/Addiction to marijuana were = “Withdrawal symptoms — irritability, anxiety, sleep disturbances” – that’s a pretty tame list = compared to the side-effects of any new medicines that the “Pharma-Coms” advertise these days.

And these can also create a ‘dependence’ to some degree leading to withdrawl – Only, they prefer to refer call this a “Discontinuation Syndrome” – and the powers that be – let them get away with using this euphemism.

Because there’s normally little-to-no euphoria tied to the new drugs that the ‘Pharma-Coms’ push… So, they aren’t “addictive” – per se = not in their world.

“I think Madison Avenue has proven that it can get around more rules and be more ruthless than any Mexican drug cartel,” adds Sabet.

————————–

That’s right Kevin, the players on Madison Avenue are notorious for beheading members of rival firms and scattering their heads on Broadway. Then they take the headless bodies and hang them from the Brooklyn Bridge. Just vicious I tell ya.

Although S.A.M. is going to be in the game for a while, their stance that the violence on this side of the border isn’t that bad and we don’t need to think about the carnage on the other side, is going to be part of their undoing. And the idea that there is no such thing as a marijuana user that is not addicted is another. ALL marijuana users are to be either forced into rehab, pay a fine or go to jail? Yet another. There are many more examples of why they are doomed. But that doesn’t mean we can just laugh them off. They need to be hounded constantly.

Is it OK if I laugh at them while simultaneously understanding that this is a very serious matter? Some things are just physically impossible. How in the world could anyone that’s reasonably intelligent not laugh when Mr. Kennedy gives a speech or writes a…well anything at all?

If I’m not allowed to use them as laughing stock I fear that they would drive me stark raving mad. Alright all you people in the peanut gallery, there’s no conclusive evidence that I’m already stark raving mad, or even within walking distance!

“A violently active, intrepid, brutal youth,
that is what I am after…
I will have no intellectual training.
Knowledge is ruin for my young men.”
Adolf Hitler,
quoted by John Gunther “The Nation”

The Assassins of Youth: DARE † FRCn PDFA
May 17 00 …the $195 million national media campaign that McCaffrey is running this year to dissuade youngsters from using illicit drugs will not spend a penny in Federal funds to warn teenagers about the Dangers of drinking. The White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy offers two reasons for not including alcohol in the antidrug campaign.

Partnership for a Drug Free America, a nonprofit coalition of advertising firms that has been working on the campaign. The Partnership argues that an antialcohol message would dilute the antidrug message, but some of the Partnership’s members earn lucrative fees for promoting alcohol products.

Partnership for a Drug-Free America Sources of Funding from 1988-91 as extracted from Federal Tax Returns (figures are approximate) by the Washington Hemp Education Network, also from the Los Angeles Times:

Pharmaceuticals and their beneficiaries alone donated 54 percent of the $5.8 million the Partnership took from its top twenty-five contributors from 1988 to 1991. That 54 percent is conservative. It doesn’t include donations under $90,000, and it doesn’t include donations from the tobacco and alcohol kings: The Partnership has taken $150,000 each from Philip Morris, Anheuser-Busch and RJR Reynolds, plus $100,000 from American Brands (Jim Beam. Lucky Strike).

Verses:

Oaksterdam UniversityQuality Training for the Cannabis Industry
America’s first cannabis college was founded in 2007 to provide students with the highest quality training for the cannabis industry. Since opening its doors, thousands of students have learned how to grow medicinal quality cannabis and have gained important skills for success in the cannabis industry. Our instructors are the most knowledgeable in the industry.

Toke of the Town ‏@TokeOfTheTownGOP Guv Scott Walker says you’re all wrong,weed more dangerous than booze
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, President Clinton’s director of national drug policy, has declared flatly that underage drinking is the single biggest drug problem among adolescents.

Such a good point that the “legal” drug companies are so supportive of the War on drugs in any form.

If people were legally allowed to, and learned that they could grow effective (some more, some less) medicine in their back yard, the drug companies would be decimated. Their TRUE motivation would be exposed. Hell, they might even be held accountable *horror* for producing pills with more side-effects than the ailments they propose to alleviate!

The really, really pathetic part is that the prohibitionist parasites have been granted a waiver by the general public WRT their profit motive. They’ve managed to get their sycophants to believe that “addiction” will “skyrocket” if (some) “drugs” are re-legalized. Having done that they’re perceived by their sycophants as working against their own financial interests. Because they’ve scammed the gullible into adopting that presumption as the platform for their “reasoning”, the practical effect grants them carte blanche to make the most idiotic proclamations that they can think up but nevertheless be taken seriously.

Well what can I tell you? It appears that I’ve misquoted H.L. Menken dozens and dozens of times. It says here that he actually said:

“ Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know-and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me-has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.

‘Notes On Journalism’ in the Chicago Tribune (September 19, 1926)”

I really hate it when that happens. Especially when the accurate version is so much more on target.

If they weren’t so pathetic I’d be tempted to say that they’re functioning as though they were on our side, often making a better case for us than for them, just because their points don’t make any sense when examined.
Unfortunately though, I also think virtually everyone on the periphery has gotten so tired of all of this, that they just let it slide as another impossible bridge to rebuild: that is the reason we must stay on it, and so we shall.

stupid patricks homily about letting go and letting god misses out the bit about surrender. accepting the things that cannot be changedlike the major shift in demographics as the prohibs die out. pat needs a little serenity

Okay. One thumbs up. That tells me that the collective couch is not getting the true significance of this to the movement in general.
Think of it this way. IF they succeed in killing medical access, personal and collective gardens, AND implementing a patient registry, they will forever create a radical schism between medical advocates and advocates of legalization. Medical people will point to Washington and use our experience to justify fighting against legalization. The proponents of medical marijuana will never again support general legalization, and vice-versa. This could sink the entire movement.
A little help here?

I’m sure these guys are funded by their “friends” Bensinger & Dupont who recognize the monetary value to them of treatment on a massive scale. So much conflict of interest here but in the end, Kennedy & Sabet are just two more pigs fighting to protect their places at the drug war trough.

These guys are despicable & should be called out loudly on their funding & connections to the treatment industry.

Also, every time KevKev is mentioned, talk about how he is not a physician, just a trained liar; his Ph.D. is in Public Policy, which is to say, he is a trained, educated, practiced, smooth as silk LIAR. He is NOT an expert on medicine, he is an expert on prevarication, dissimulation, equivocation, but NOT an expert on drug control.

Kevin and Hitler share a lot of similarities. I bet he collects Nazi memorabilia and writes fantasy fiction that enables him to be Hitler’s Drug Czar–where he gets to execute us.

This is why I don’t support breastfeeding kids past the age of 10. You just know Kevin’s a special kind of creep show and that he probably has a collection of all his shaved whiskers and earwax.

I can understand and even feel sorry for the usual brainwashed and mercury addled buffoons like these prohibs, but the thing I cannot stand the most is the fact that Kevin has been caught numerous times masturbating to images of Christ at various churches.

There is nothing worthy about these peoples’ lives nor anything rational about their ideas and thoughts. The only thing one can do is make fun of them. They don’t have feelings nor can they love like we can. And I cannot get out the image of Pat’s photo-shopped picture where he and his relative, John F. Kennedy are dressed as nuns and making out–how despicable.

Why in the world would anybody shave earwax? But then some people buy shaved meats every day at the grocery store deli counter. Thanks, but if it has to be shaved before they sell it then I’ll take a pass. It’s almost as weird as the people buy chicken feet and head cheese and call it food. If there ever was a retail product that should kept behind the counter out of sight of “the children” it’s chicken feet.

Why the heck doesn’t Kev-Kev know that there’s a time and place for everything? What does he think that the good lord had someone invent peep shows for anyway? It’s not like there’s any shortage of Jesus or Nun porn either. They’ve got some really, really weird stuff too. E.g. the incompetent postal service delivery engineer assigned to my street delivered my poor next door neighbor’s mail to our house by accident. Apparently he’s quite a fan of midget porn. Who the heck knew that you can buy an inflatable midget love doll with your choice of gender? Now my wife are having a discussion of whether we should just put his mail in his box like we always do. I say we should toss the porn to save him the embarrassment of knowing that his neighbors are aware that he has a midget fetish (not that there’s anything wrong with that.) She says that if he doesn’t want people to know that he should contact the USPS and insist that they assign a competent delivery person to our street. I guess she has a point. It’s quite a dilemma.

We should also demand an explanation why Kev-Kev has never once been criminally charged, much less convicted for all of those bitten ankles. Let’s not forget to that incessant high pitch yapping. That’s got to be against the law!

For the SAM Halloween party, Kevin dressed up as Pat’s ‘midget blow up Doll’ and Pat dressed up as Kevin’s kitten, Karen. But I cannot remember which one dressed up as the USPS guy during the SAM Christmas party so some little children belonging to some locked up ‘marijuana’ addicts could sit on his lap and request what they want for Christmas.

But be very carful when you go to sleep . . . a lot of teenagers who have been caught smoking pot claim to dream about Kevin and he tries to ‘drug court’ them in their dreams. Most of these kids attempt to take large quantities of crystal and coke and Red Bull to stay up all night as to avoid Kevin in their sleep. It never turns out well.

But Pat used to be on our side back in the early 90’s but something happened and we don’t know why. If you recall watching MTV during the early to mid 90’s, Pat Kennedy was that one random white guy who was seen at the parties or rode in the pimped up Impala in rap music videos. Rumor has it that it was Pat who wrecked Snoop Dog’s ‘Weed Bus’ into the vehicle of an off duty Warrant Officer in the Coast Guard. His fidelity with his west coast G’s ended shortly after he was quoted saying, “I haven’t rapped a (explicit-deleted) day in my life.”

Have I mentioned I love LEAP? I do… and LEAPster Dianne Wattles-Goldstein continues to shine. Her latest in LadyBug rocks and is exactly what the Sebats and Kennedys and Fays and ad nauseum won’t talk about. But then maybe if they suffered forced body cavity searches they might find an opinion. Take it away Dianne:

An article in the Chicago Sun-Times quoted the lawsuit and described the officers’ actions as “exceeding all bounds of human decency.” I would go further and describe them as a violation of not just of our constitutional rights but of human rights as well. Human rights are societal norms enshrined throughout the world. They are inherent, yet are being systematically ignored by those in a position to effect change. I have a theory and it centers on how the drug war has marginalized people in the eyes not just of law enforcement, but our own communities.

-snip-

We are currently in a period of great social change as the public recognizes the many failures of our drug policy. Yet a large number of those that could and should help remain largely silent. It is this silence that is deafening and demands the answer to at what point will our political and our law enforcement leaders take note and recognize the truly detrimental consequences of a bad policy? Does it have to be when they themselves, or someone they love, are victimized in this fashion? Their silence speaks volumes and continues to perpetuate the belief that this conduct is acceptable in the name of prohibition. So in order to save law enforcement, can we just end the drug war, *please*?

My daughter posted this to my fb wall, another example of why there will never be a drug-free world:

Jaguars in South America deliberately seek out the hallucinogenic caapi plant and gnaw on its roots to get high.

This behaviour is surprisingly common, and drugged up jaguars can be found throughout the jungle. The roots contain powerful MAOIs (chemicals like you find in antidepressants) that heighten the jaguar’s senses as well as causing it to hallucinate.

It’s also used as a hallucinogenic by humans, and some scientists believe that they figured out its properties by observing the jaguars getting high.

there are those that say the human-plant relationship is an ancient and sacred thing… and that no law circumvents the original law. Which is why I love Terence McKenna. It seems there’s an old saying, something about when the path forward is the path back, it’s time to go home.

There are living drug factories everywhere! Life is a drug. The planet is infested.

Tribesman 3: “Man, if that 250-pound animal gets that trashed on the stuff… ”

Tribesman 1: “Let’s go!”

stonedanimals/jaguar4.jpg
A Jaguar in the Peruvian rain forest eats Yage (banisteriopsis caapi), a vine containing hallucinogenic chemical harmaline and other beta carbolines, used by natives in a ritualistic ceremony involving Ayahuasca. (it’s the one of the two ingredients, the other contains usually DMT)

Dr. Andrew Weil of the University of Arizona College of Medicine states, “There is not a shred of hope from history or from cross-culture studies to suggest that human beings can live without psychoactive substances.” Bees drop to the ground after having nectar from certain orchards. Birds get drunk off berries and then fly into windows. After cats sniff certain plants they swing at imaginary objects. Certain range weeds will make cows shake, twitch, and stumble back for more. Elephants purposely get drunk on fermented fruits…”

The Psychedelic Secrets of Santa Claus
Reindeer were the sacred animals of these semi-nomadic people, as the reindeer provided food, shelter, clothing and other necessities. Reindeer are also fond of eating the amanita mushrooms; they will seek them out, then prance about while under their influence. Often the urine of tripped-out reindeer would be consumed for its psychedelic effects. It was common practice among ancient people to recycle the potent effects of the mushroom by drinking each other’s urine. Some scholars argue that this is the origin of the phrase “to get pissed,” as this urine-drinking activity preceded alcohol by thousands of years.

oh they know alright. they re just not saying. they cant hide behind the lie of volunteerism for ever and when it gets out that they are funded by Big Pharma they will have to set up a new front for more of the SAM(e)

GW Pharmaceuticals. The makers of Epidiolex. Kevin and Co. have already mentioned this cannabis CBD Extract product a few times. If they aren’t funding them at least partially, I would be very surprised.

Hogwash. GW Pharm is a publicly traded company. That means its balance sheet is public info. I’ve read it, have you? That’s a rhetorical question. I’d wager dollars to dirt that you don’t even know where to find it.

But it’s mighty prohibitionist of you to just make stuff up because it suits your agenda. It’s also just plain stupid and narcissistic to think that GW Pharm is worried about competition from hippie dippie budtenders. It really does amaze me that there are so many people who think that there’s any chance that whole plant exo-cannabinoid medicine has even a prayer of going mainstream. It just isn’t bloody likely.

Yes, I’m still very long GW Pharm with an ungodly large (for me) position. If you think that means that I’m lying, please prove it, or just GFY.

NeoConflicts of Interest maintaining Incremental Retardation with 20 states and DC bickering over how much to please. While 20,000 research studies say remove it from the drug war. Oh but then Big Pharma doesn’t win. No Cop excuse to cage undesirables. Worse, No profits caging undesirables. No need for Benslinger Tests, thats WoD for Piss Tests. No Sabet Army of Morons sucking the tit of Philanthropisst Charitiy Laundrey Mats. Or getting tax Grants stealing from schools and road maintenance. Billions for SqWAT. Keeping Dispensaries and Homegrown unnecessary, as long as it remains in the CSA.

“Since you [US “drug tsar” McCaffrey] control a federal budget that has just been increased from $17.8 billion last year to $19.2 billion this year, is asking people like you if we should continue with our nation’s current drug policy like a person asking a barber if one needs a haircut?”Judge James P. Gray Orange Country, California
Los Angeles Times 29 March 2000

“Any high THC strain can be used,” prominent Australian cannabis breeder/researcher Mark Heinrich told Toke Signals on Monday. “As it is THCA, there is no issue of the high, so that makes strain choice less selective.

“Truly, this is universally (read globally) available to even the poorest people,” Heinrich told us. “I have sent the simple method to doctors in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and China, with more countries coming.

Screen Shot 2014-02-18 at 3.05.23 PM“This is HUGE, and it is so simple,” Heinrich told Toke Signals. “There is no need to spend huge money on CBD if THCA is just as good.

“We are getting good results with CBDA, CBD, THCA, and CBN,” Heinrich said. “We are doing great things in Oz, and now being with Dave Mapes has broadened our reach.

Several state Legislatures, particularly in more conservative states such as Alabama, are also considering “CBD-only” legislation which would legalize CBD oil but leave THC illegal. This is particularly unfortunate for a number of reasons. Two of the major ones are (1) research has shown the cannabinoids, including THC and CBD, work most effectively in combination with each other, through syngergistic effects; and (2) the passage of “CBD-only” legislation serves to increase and emphasize the “scariness” and “otherness” of THC. Demonizing THC is just silly, because it’s one of the best, most non-toxic of anti-inflammatories, anti-tumor agents, antioxidants, and neuroprotectants known.

Letter to a Prohibitionist
Paperback by Barry Lyons
REVISED EDITION, NOVEMBER 2013.
NOW WITH MORE OUTRAGE!
Letter to a Prohibitionist is a witty and withering indictment of the War on Drugs, with special emphasis placed on marijuana, which, as followers of this decades-long debacle know, is the primary target of drug-law-intoxicated prohibitionists everywhere.

Barry Lyons ‏@lyonsnyc
Just had a good talk with @RadicalRuss about my book, “Letter to a Prohibitionist”. Thanks, Russ!

The militarization of law enforcement agencies is a worrying development. It’s not necessarily new. Law enforcement agencies have been converting police departments into quasi-military outfits for years, most of it spurred on by the over-deployment of SWAT teams to handle basic arrests and take down ever-so-dangerous marijuana users.

Kennedy complains about ‘big alcohol and big tobacco’, but has taken thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the alcohol industry, including Anheuser-Busch, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, the National Beer Wholesalers Association of America, and many other alcohol distributors, manufacturers, and retailers.

These associations are absolulely dwarfed, however, by Kennedy’s relationship with the gambling and casino industries. During the course of his eight terms in the House, Kennedy received over $500,000 from gambling groups.

“A commercial marijuana industry will act just as the tobacco industry acts. Big Tobacco may even take over a marijuana industry once it’s up and running,” reads a Project SAM article that fingers “Altria, the parent company of Phillip Morris” for purchasing, in 2009, “AltriaCannabis.com” and “AltriaMarijuana.com.”

What Project SAM doesn’t tell you is that Altria gave money to Patrick Kennedy’s congressional campaign, and that Philip Morris,New Century Tobacco Group, and U.S. Tobacco all did as well.

“Life isn’t really in our control,” says Kennedy, as another sober day fades to night. “There’s a mover in the universe, a higher power, so to speak, and we can’t imagine what we’re going to find in our universe if we let go and just let God lead us.”

I think this point to another side of SAM (the main side?). As others have commented on in other posts, Kevin Sabet’s faith does not allow the use of intoxicants (unless prescribed by a doctor). Aligned with Kennedy’s quote above, we have this wonderful religious/moral angle that these guys hide behind with their “science”. Yeah, religious morality and science have always jelled very nicely.

So I wonder what Kevin and Patrick’s religions say about lying on a constant and ongoing basis? Any moral issues there?

I have a difficult time scoping Kevin Sabet’s religion since I’ve never met nor interacted with someone of the Bahá’í Faith’s teachings. Besides being anti-drug, they claim they’re directed toward a life of ‘service to humanity’. Maybe they mean the Twilight Zone version: to serve humanity up to the plutocrats—their holy book is a cookbook.

I once encountered an oddity about the Bahá’í discussed by Geoffrey Robertson in his book Crimes Against Humanity, wherein he devotes its last sections to ripping the United Nations for gross incompetence. Regarding the UN, Robertson said the Bahá’í religion is unusually popular among United Nations staff and personnel.

I’m not sure if this information has any significance, nor what it might mean for Sabet and his own personal drug war. He’s definitely active in the faith. If Kevin Sabet’s public behavior is any indication, however, we need to keep an eye on these Bahá’í critters, as well as their agenda for the rest of us.

Conservatives will laugh at the notion of liberals trying to ban large sodas or supersized fries. What conservatives don’t realize is they support that same philosophy, just with a different product – drugs.

Now for todays episode of “How fucked up can you make this thing, anyway?: Washington” When we last left off, the State was killing medical marijuana, while ramping up a woefully inadequate Retail infrastructure, using flawed data from a Fat Bald Guy in clown shoes from UCLA. Today, the state reacts to the fact that people actually want to take part in this industry, and literally pees itself at the prospect of people competing and trying to grow enough for the Market. Hold onto your seats, and don’t have coffee anywhere NEAR your mouth for this one. Oh my fucking GAWD.http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/02/19/one-license-per-pot-grower-state-says

That crashing and wailing noise you hear? That’s businesses going belly up, and entrepreneurs weeping. Thank GOD I wasn’t able to round up investors. I’d be changing my name and heading for South America.

This decriminalization of marijuana does not mean we endorse the use of marijuana but it is only a call to wiser use of law enforcement and public health policy. Prohibition of marijuana abdicates the control of marijuana production and distribution to drug cartels and street gangs. Such prohibition promotes disrespect for the law and reinforces ethnic and generational divides between the public and law enforcement.

Every year, hundreds and thousands of Americans are arrested for marijuana possession violations- far more than all those arrested for violent crimes in America. Societal costs dealing with the war on drugs concerning marijuana exceeds 12 billion dollars annually. Since the war on drugs began, 85% of the arrests for marijuana have been for possession only.

Marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Recent polls show over 50% of Americans believe marijuana should be decriminalized. While arrests for marijuana since 1965 have been over 20 million citizens, marijuana is more prevalent than ever before.

There is no evidence that marijuana is a “gateway” drug leading to the use of more lethal drugs. 75% of citizens arrested for marijuana are under 30. Minorities account for a majority of those arrested for marijuana. Criminal conviction permanently scars a young citizen for life.

NOTE: It’s worth reading the description of ‘Decriminalization’ they use, it’s not the wishy-washy version that people riding the fence would use prefer.

Texas Democrats urge the President, the Attorney General and the Congress to support the passage of legislation to decriminalize the possession of marijuana and regulate it’s use, production and sale as is done with tobacco and alcohol.

They also appear to make a distinct separation in regard to the subject of “medical marijuana”…

We further urge the immediate decriminalization of the possession and use of medical marijuana.

Which, IMO appears to be a subtle, but VERY intentional way to prevent the all-too-common response – along the lines of – “Well, we might be okay with medical marijuana, we can legitimately debate that…
But, “Legalization” is ‘off-the-table’…
AKA, the – “Not In Our Vocabulary” – sorta remarks = Before they’re even started.

(Emphasis & bolding above = mine. I still struggle a bit w/ the html tags of links -as is- and I’m sorry but proper use of [cite=””] just isn’t terribly clear in my mind yet.)

i guess the contrast of co and wa shows what a good job (k)lieman did for his employers and i dont mean the tax payers of wa. he was clearly hired to ensure a screw up and thats just what he delivered.